Because we wish to present the highest quality service to all our readers, we have now installed Google Analytics to the blog. This will allow us to track the volume and source of our readership and thus tailor our offerings in a more efficient manner.
For those of you Fourth Amendment / privacy-loving crazy liberals, have no fear. Your secrets are still safe with me, especially since I won't have access to them. Also, I'm not the government, so the Fourth Amendment does not apply here.
Special thanks to Cheryl Freiburg for her expertise in helping set this up. (However, this is not enough to merit an additional award at this time.)
Also, special thanks to Amanda Johnson. Your site is the #1 referrer!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
New Year's Resolutions
NONE!
(We here at The Best Blog Ever never admit to any of our deficiencies, and nor should you.)
Happy New Year to you all.
(We here at The Best Blog Ever never admit to any of our deficiencies, and nor should you.)
Happy New Year to you all.
UFC 92 Results
UFC 92 was last night. Kristin and I were out and about, so I didn't have a chance to watch it. But it was a truly great fight card:
ENJOY.
- Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans for the Light Heavyweight title
- Nogueira vs. Frank Mir
- Rampage Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva
ENJOY.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Growth & Branding
Caution: This could be a very nerdy post.
I started this blog in early September with this post. Through word of mouth and some aggressive marketing (me begging people to read), blog readership is at an all-time high (20+ readers). Who knew this blog would have such a far-reaching audience? But with this blog touching all parts of the blogosphere, some issues obviously arise.
When you look at the corporate world, such rapid growth can lead to multiple problems. One is expanding so quickly that you build too much capacity. Then, when the industry retrenches, you have a lot of costly idle capacity. Fortunately, blogging is very scalable, so we don't have that problem.
The second issue is developing your market. Do you want to be a producer for the masses, or do you pick a niche and try to service that group extremely well? If you try to be a producer for the masses and be all things to all people, it's very possible that you serve none of them very well. You end up being in a low-margin business with high fixed costs. And when the market changes, you can't be very nimble. On the other hand, if you want to be a niche player, you have to do at least one thing better than all your competitors for one specific segment of the market. There can be high margins. But such high margins quickly attract competitors. And if you're entire business is dependent upon one small market, bad things can happen quickly if you lose that market, or the market shrinks, or whatever.
So, maybe you can see my quandary. I can either continue aggressively marketing this blog to all. In the short-term, I will likely gain more readers. But there's a good chance many of them won't like it, and they will spread bad word of mouth to other potential readers, thus diluting the brand. Or, I can be very selective in choosing prospects, discussing the blog only at the right time and only with the right people, and hopefully building up an audience that is smaller but more loyal (and creating great brand awareness and recognition).
The question is how I want this blog to be seen by (potential) readers. Do I want a select few to really love it, or do I want the masses to just like it? Obviously, this is an issue that someone in marketing should be able to solve. So I asked Kristin Pagano (Associate Brand Manager of Guitar Hero at Activision, and also my wife) what she thought about these branding issues, and she said "You're a dork." So this problem isn't going to be solved by a professional.
Oh well, all that for nothing. I guess I'll just keep doing what I've been doing. Never mind this post.
I started this blog in early September with this post. Through word of mouth and some aggressive marketing (me begging people to read), blog readership is at an all-time high (20+ readers). Who knew this blog would have such a far-reaching audience? But with this blog touching all parts of the blogosphere, some issues obviously arise.
When you look at the corporate world, such rapid growth can lead to multiple problems. One is expanding so quickly that you build too much capacity. Then, when the industry retrenches, you have a lot of costly idle capacity. Fortunately, blogging is very scalable, so we don't have that problem.
The second issue is developing your market. Do you want to be a producer for the masses, or do you pick a niche and try to service that group extremely well? If you try to be a producer for the masses and be all things to all people, it's very possible that you serve none of them very well. You end up being in a low-margin business with high fixed costs. And when the market changes, you can't be very nimble. On the other hand, if you want to be a niche player, you have to do at least one thing better than all your competitors for one specific segment of the market. There can be high margins. But such high margins quickly attract competitors. And if you're entire business is dependent upon one small market, bad things can happen quickly if you lose that market, or the market shrinks, or whatever.
So, maybe you can see my quandary. I can either continue aggressively marketing this blog to all. In the short-term, I will likely gain more readers. But there's a good chance many of them won't like it, and they will spread bad word of mouth to other potential readers, thus diluting the brand. Or, I can be very selective in choosing prospects, discussing the blog only at the right time and only with the right people, and hopefully building up an audience that is smaller but more loyal (and creating great brand awareness and recognition).
The question is how I want this blog to be seen by (potential) readers. Do I want a select few to really love it, or do I want the masses to just like it? Obviously, this is an issue that someone in marketing should be able to solve. So I asked Kristin Pagano (Associate Brand Manager of Guitar Hero at Activision, and also my wife) what she thought about these branding issues, and she said "You're a dork." So this problem isn't going to be solved by a professional.
Oh well, all that for nothing. I guess I'll just keep doing what I've been doing. Never mind this post.
Random Thoughts From Christmas
Christmas has come and gone. All that build-up, and it's over so fast. So with that, let's recap some of the major issues topics from the last two days:
- Prosciutto is the best of all the salted cured meats. This is not debatable.
The best Christmas gift I received was some packets of salt. They were wrapped, and from Santa. You really never know when you're going to be eating a steak, and there will be no salt on the table. And when that happens, the Nunnellys will mock you for years to come. It's best to come prepared with your own salt.- Guitar Hero World Tour is a big hit, if you can get someone to sing. Chris Corradini made an excellent singer on Christmas Eve. However, yesterday, I took one for the team and belted out "Hotel California" in a very unforgettable ear-splitting performance.
- Another phenomenal Christmas gift was from my cousin Domenic to my Aunt Lucretia. She came strolling in yesterday in her brand new Neil Diamond jacket. She wore it with great pride. Truly amazing.
The second annual Feats of Strength was canceled. Apparently, my cousin Steven had been sick the week prior and had not had a chance to practice. He was supposed to do 100 push-ups in 5 minutes, for $100. He bowed out gracefully. - My cousin Domenic seems to have consumed a whole bottle of Jack Daniels on his own. Good job, and keep up the good work.
- My cousin Pam is considering starting her own blog. I think she'll be using it mostly to post pictures of her kids Drew and Addison. Whatever the use, I'd like to think that I was her inspiration.
- For years, we have played Trivial Pursuit on Christmas. I can't believe it has taken so long for me to realize this, but it's a really bad idea to let a bunch of mostly Italians (who already yell at each other most of the time) try to play a game like this. There is always so much yelling going on, it's maddening. SERENITY NOW!
- Next year, we're playing Battleship.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Moms To Start Reading
I may have had a breakthrough in getting my mom and my mother-in-law to read the blog. Last night, I sent them both an email with the link to the blog. Now, there are no excuses (although I'm sure I'll be hearing shortly that they "accidentally" deleted the email). If only they could actually bookmark the site (assuming they know what bookmarks or favorites are). Anyway, the next time I see them, they will need to prove that they actually read the blog. So as to ensure their loyalty, I am including in this post a code word.
The code word is : tippy toe.
The code word is : tippy toe.
Happy Festivus
Last night, Kristin reminded me that I should wish all my readers good tidings during this holiday season. So as not to offend anyone and/or their religious beliefs/non-beliefs, we here at the blog need to remain a bit generic.
So we will wish you a Happy Festivus. If you don't know what Festivus is, shame on you! Go look it up right now! I can divulge that it includes a pole (as opposed to a Christmas tree) with a high strength-to-weight ratio, the feats of strength (likely a wrestling match), and the airing of the grievances (very common at an Italian family Christmas).
Happy Festivus everyone!
So we will wish you a Happy Festivus. If you don't know what Festivus is, shame on you! Go look it up right now! I can divulge that it includes a pole (as opposed to a Christmas tree) with a high strength-to-weight ratio, the feats of strength (likely a wrestling match), and the airing of the grievances (very common at an Italian family Christmas).
Happy Festivus everyone!
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